the blog of LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Citizen dialog for transparent process

Renewable Energy

Sunday, 10 March 2013

Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami
that heavily damaged four of the six nuclear reactors at
Fukushima Dai-ichi in Japan on 11 March 2011, also known as 3/11.
The broken reactors at Fukushima continue to leak radioactive substances into
groundwater, the sea, and the air, where it is carried across oceans
to the U.S. and elsewhere.
And it could still get much worse:
if the No. 4 reactor pool, still suspended in the air, collapses and causes
the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the other reactors there,
Tokyo, 200 miles away, will have to be evacuated.
Fukushima's GE reactors are the same GE Mark I design as Southern Company's
Plant Hatch 1 and 2 only 100 miles from here at Baxley, GA,
and about 200 miles from Atlanta and Charleston.
Hatch
is leaking radioactive tritium into our groundwater again.
Five more reactors
within 500 miles of here
are also GE Mark I.

Among the 311 or so facebook pages and websites about Fukushima
or against nuclear power is this concise one,
Unplug Nuclear Power,
which offers a simple action anyone can take tomorrow:

On 3/11, we will mark Fukushima day by using as little utility
supplied electricity as possible. This direct Action is designed to
punish the utility companies for continuing to push for nuclear
power even after the Fukushima disaster has proven that it is just
too dangerous. On that day, we will punish them in the only way that
they understand, by denying them our money. There will be four
levels of participation, go to the website,
www.unplugnuclearpower.com for a more complete description. Also, be
sure to join the Event. Finally, if you are in a group our
organization that can endorse this Action, please let us know.

Saturday, 09 March 2013

On the 27th of February I posted
Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper
and Gretchen and I went to the Bird Supper in Atlanta and discussed
those four bills with legislators.
Our local elected officials were lobbying on the same side of many of
the same bills.
It's past crossover day now, when bills are supposed to be
approved by one house of the Georgia legislature in order to be
taken up by the other.
How did that come out?
We all beat the mighty telcos and cablecos on two bills!
But Georgia Power is even mightier, and won on two bills.
Plus one legislator's name is connected with 3 out of 4 of those bills.
And our local delegation cancelled itself out on the one vote
that actually went to the floor.

Internet Access: help stop two telecommunications bills

The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council,
and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that
fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses,
for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs,
for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life.
And there's good news from the legislature!

Saturday, 02 March 2013

Economist, author, and advisor to governments
Jeremy Rifkin
told an agent of the world's largest uranium field operator
at a conference of global investors that there's no business
future in nuclear power.

Nuclear power was pretty well dead in the water in
the 1980s after Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It had a comeback.
The comeback was the industry said "we are part of the solution for
climate change because we don't emit CO2 with nuclear; it's
polluting, but there's no CO2".

Georgia Power's Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project will take
about 19 months longer to complete than originally expected and cost
about $740 million more than originally thought, the company said
Thursday.

Georgia Power said its share of the estimated $14 billion project
will rise to $6.85 billion, up from $6.11 billion, because of
increased capital costs and additional financing costs. Customers,
who have been paying the financing costs since 2011, now will pay
them for a longer period of time.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Two things could greatly help south Georgia:
better Internet access and solar power.
You could help stop two telecommunications bills
and help pass two energy bills for jobs and education
in south Georgia.

Internet Access: help stop two telecommunications bills

The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council,
and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that
fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses,
for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs,
for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life.

HB 282 against muni broadband
This bill would prohibit local governments from providing Internet access
if any local census block has 1.5Mbps access.
Localities may or may not want to do it themselves, but they shouldn't
be prohibited from using this option now that it is obvious to everyone
that the commercial incumbents are not doing the job.
Legislators please vote this bill down.

Energy: help pass two energy bills

GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act
Senator Buddy Carter has introduced a Senate bill for the current session
of the legislature, SB 51, "The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed
Generation Act of 2001". It attempts to fix Georgia's special solar
financing problem, the antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act,
which says you can only sell power you generate to your one and only
pre-determined electric utility, at whatever rate that utility sets.

HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant
Stop Georgia Power from charging customers for cost overruns for Plant Vogtle,
already 15 months behind schedule and a billion dollars overbudget for power
that nobody has received, yet Georgia Power has already billed customers about
$1.7 billion.
Bipartisan cosponsors are Jeff Chapman (R—Brunswick) District 167 and
Karla Drenner (D—Avondale Estates) District 85.
This boondoggle on the Savannah River is what Georgia Power and Southern Company
are doing instead of deploying solar inland and wind off the coast.

Thursday, 21 February 2013

Fox News recently claimed that "solar won't work in America because
it's not as sunny as Germany". Such statements are common for a
network that has long lost its credibility. Unfortunately too many
take such gibberish at face value. Thus columns like
“environmentalism or obstructionism?” are not
surprising, but in the end it's the facts that matter:

Global warming is real. For years we have been experiencing record
heat waves, droughts, wild fires, etc., and while seawater levels
are rising, storms like hurricane Sandy become major threats
to low lying areas along coast lines.

The main culprit for global warming are greenhouse gases like
carbon dioxide, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels,
especially coal and oil.

While China overall emits more than we do, the US leads in per
capita emissions. The average US citizen produces three times more
carbon dioxide than the average Chinese citizen.

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Tabled! The applicant requested and the Commission unanimously voted
to table
the proposed closing of Old State Road to Hotchkiss Crossing
on the Alapaha River
until their next meeting, which is in two weeks, Tuesday 26 February 2013.
A waste company executive suddenly rescheduled so he could come back
and apologize to the public.
All this and 3 rezonings and 3 contracts at the Lowndes County Commission
Regular Session Tuesday 12 February 2013, plus people haven't forgotten
about animal shelter issues.

My op-ed in the VDT today; I've added links, plus some more after the op-ed.

Finally! Kewaunee, Calvert Cliffs, and now Crystal River
permanently closing say it's time for Georgia to stop wasting money
on Southern Company's already over-budget and increasingly-late
nukes and get on with solar power and wind off the coast: for
jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and plenty of
clean water.